HIS LIFE AND LABOURS. 191 



Malignant Pustule), which seemed to me to mark an 

 epoch in the history of this formidable disease. With 

 admirable patience, skill, and penetration Koch fol- 

 lowed up the life-history of bacillus anthracis, the con- 

 tagium of this fever. At the time here referred to he 

 was a young physician holding a small appointment in 

 the neighbourhood of Breslau, and it was easy to pre- 

 dict, and indeed I predicted at the time, that he would 

 soon find himself in a higher position. When I next 

 heard of him he was head of the Imperial Sanitary 

 Institute of Berlin. Koch's recent history is pretty 

 well known in England, while his appreciation by the 

 German Government is shown by the rewards and 

 honours lately conferred upon him. 



Koch was not the discoverer of the parasite of 

 splenic fever. Davaine and Eayer, in 1850, had ob- 

 served the little microscopic rods in the blood of 

 animals which had died of splenic fever. But they 

 were quite unconscious of the significance of their 

 observation, and for thirteen years, as M. Eadot informs 

 us, strangely let the matter drop. In 1863 Davaine's 

 attention was again directed to the subject by the 

 researches of Pasteur, and he then pronounced the 

 parasite to be the cause of the fever. He was opposed 

 by some of his fellow-countrymen ; long discussions 

 followed, and a second period of thirteen years, ending 

 with the publication of Koch's paper, elapsed before 

 M. Pasteur took up the question. I always, indeed, 

 assumed that from the paper of the learned German 

 came the impulse towards a line of inquiry in which 

 M. Pasteur has achieved such splendid results. Things 

 presenting themselves thus to my mind, M. Radot 

 will, I trust, forgive me if I say that it was with very 

 great regret that I perused the disparaging references to 

 Dr. Koch which occur in the chapter on splenic fever. 



